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The Hidden Air Pollution in Our Homes

Food magazines typically celebrate Thanksgiving in mid-July, bronzing turkeys and crimping piecrust four months in advance. By that time last year, Marina Vance, an environmental engineer at the University of Colorado Boulder, had already prepared two full Thanksgiving dinners for more than a dozen people. Vance studies air quality, and, last June, she was one of two scientists in charge of homechem, a four-week orgy of cooking, cleaning, and emissions measurement, which brought sixty scientists and four and a half million dollars’ worth of high-tech instrumentation to a ranch house on the engineering campus of the University of Texas at Austin.

Date Published: April 1, 2019

Publication: The New Yorker

Author: Nicola Twilley

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Tostar pan puede exponer a la gente a más polución que la intersección de dos avenidas

La operación de este electrodoméstico expone a más polución que el centro de Nueva York. Un nuevo estudio de la Universidad de Colorado (CU) en Boulder advirtió que las tostadoras son un factor importante de la polución del aire. Apenas se las enciende, comienzan a liberar partículas tóxicas en una cantidad mayor a la que, por ejemplo, afecta a una persona que está en la intersección […]

Date Published: February 25, 2019

Publication: Uni TV

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Cooking, boiling water can lead to high level of indoor air pollution, says study

Moreover, the airborne chemicals that originate inside a house do not stay there. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from products such as shampoo, perfume and cleaning solutions eventually escape outside and contribute to ozone and fine particle formation, making up an even greater source of global atmospheric air pollution than cars and trucks do, the researchers explained in the paper presented at the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington.

Date Published: February 19, 2019

Publication: Mirror Now News

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How to pollution-proof your roast dinner

This week we learned that preparing a traditional roast dinner with the kitchen windows shut – something most of us do in winter – causes the pollution levels inside our homes to become worse than central London on a congested day.

Date Published: February 19, 2019

Publication: The Telegraph

Author: Jack Rear

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Cooking, Cleaning Could Raise Air Pollution Levels In Homes, Study Says

Researchers at the University of Colorado say cooking, cleaning, and other household activities generate levels of pollution in the average home similar to that of a polluted major city. Shampoos, perfumes, and cleaning products produce airborne chemicals in our houses but at higher concentrations than previously thought.

Date Published: February 19, 2019

Publication: CBS

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Bringing Attention To Indoor Air Pollution

Even tasks as simple as boiling water over a stovetop flame could contribute to potentially dangerous levels of gaseous air pollutants and suspended particles. “Even the simple act of making toast raised particle levels far higher than expected,” Vance said.

Date Published: February 19, 2019

Publication: Forbes

Author: Jessica Baron

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The Pollution Cosy Fires Raise Risk Dementia

Cooking a roast and making toast have just been identified as sources of air pollution, so we have now been advised to use extractor fans and leave windows open. But in many homes there is another potent source of air pollution: a wood-burning stove.

Date Published: February 18, 2019

Publication: The Daily Mail

Author: John Naise

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Burnt toast could be more toxic than traffic fumes, scientists warn

“If there’s tiny pieces of bread touching the heating element you can see the smoke, maybe from crumbs at the bottom of the toaster — they will all make a lot of particles.
“It led to what would be considered ‘very unhealthy’ air pollution levels if compared to outdoor air quality standards.”

Date Published: February 18, 2019

Publication: The Sun

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A hidden source of air pollution? Your daily household tasks

The previously underexplored relationship between households and air quality drew focus today at the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., where researchers from CU Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering presented their recent findings during a panel discussion.

Date Published: February 17, 2019

Publication: EurekAlert!

Author: Trent Knoss

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